He is currently a full professor at Massey University and head of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.
Azizian acquired a Master of Arts degree at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1972 and a PhD at the Diplomatic Academy of the USSR MFA in 1987.
[citation needed] Prior to becoming a full-time academic, Azizian worked as a Soviet (and later, Russian) diplomat.
He quit his diplomatic career in 1994 but stayed in the country and started teaching at the Department of Political Studies at the University of Auckland.
[3] In addition to his academic work, Azizian has appeared on numerous podcasts and interviews as an international relations commentator and foreign policy educator.